By: Jesse Cryderman
Aside from mobile, no technology has impacted telecommunications and, in fact, the world more than cloud. Tired of paying electric bills and buying computers? Welcome to the cloud. Need
more storage, or more licenses, or the latest software updates? No worries, the cloud has your back. Want to turn capital expenses into operational costs? Hello cloud.Cloud is no doubt capable
and cool; but when we strip away the shiny exterior and glossy marketing veneer, what is left? Aren't many so-called "cloud" solutions just hosted solutions in costume? The simple answer
is "yes…
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By: Dan Baker, Joseph Martin
Dan Baker, Analyst at Technology Research Institute interviews Joe Martin, Director Solution Engineering at Sprint. Solution provider sales to enterprises were simpler before the
cloud arrived. Industry players focused on their niches; for example, EDS might provide systems integration, IBM the computing, and AT&T the connectivity. Today, however, a multitude of players
compete for the complete cloud infrastructure sale. Business opportunities become large as IT and communications roles and equipment converge, resulting in cheaper-to-run, more capable, and more
flexible clouds…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
When it comes to acronyms du jour and telecom, healthy skepticism is warranted. For every acronym that lives in the industry lexicon for a decade, there are several with extremely short
lifespans. In 2013 the conversation regarding network evolution was being dominated by two acronyms: software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). By
applying the concepts of virtualization to the network itself, both acronyms promise to change the way networks are designed and controlled and how services are instantiated, monitored, and
managed…
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By: Sue Rudd
Self-Organizing Networks have the potential to rapidly and simultaneously transform network economics and improve customer experience. Two variants of SON – Centralized and Decentralized –
focus on different approaches. Network operators need to be aware of their capabilities and consider where each provides the best optimization support. SON Systems automate the configuration
and optimization of wireless networks to help operators maximize deployed RF and spectrum capacity, simplify Radia Access Network (RAN) management and improve customer experience, all while
reducing network OPEX…
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By: Phil Twist
For the last year the telecom industry has largely been in a holding pattern, with incremental developments slowly building toward a larger, mainstream transition to new technologies. This
punctuated equilibrium has paved the way for 2014, when we expect to see significant changes that will characterize the next stage of development in telecom. A few trends, in particular, promise to
define the next year: Telco Cloud, VoLTE and TD-LTE, and CEM (customer experience management). Telco Cloud Mobile broadband operators face both a myriad of challenges and exciting new opportunities
to build profitability…
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By: Becky Bracken
Your customers have gotten a grad-school-level education in telecom services. They know everything about their favorite device. They expect crystal-clear call quality at all times. They want
their interactions with their service providers to be instantaneous, hassle free with zero surprises. It's time for the industry to smarten up and virtualize the customer experience. Virtualizing
touch points within your customers' life cycle is one of the best ways to make them more profitable. Customer Experience Management (CEM) is evolving from a basic “Can you hear me now?”
proposition to a highly-sophisticated interaction across multiple channels with empowered customers trained to demand the most from their communications services…
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By: Jeff Betteker
As the world becomes hyper-connected and focused on efficiency, enterprises are increasingly turning to Unified Communications (UC). This burgeoning interest is helping UC make the transition
from hype to reality. As such, now is the optimal time for enterprises that haven’t yet invested to begin evaluating UC offerings and how they can best integrate those offerings into their
business. For those who are undergoing this process, examining cloud and hybrid UC may be the ideal starting point. Definitions of UC can, and often do, vary; however, this term may be simply
defined as the integration of real-time and non-real-time communication…
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By: Becky Bracken
The disruptive forces of software-defined networking (SDN) and the seemingly limitless potential of a virtualized network continue to be stymied by a fundamental lack of industry
standardization. The goal, ultimately, is the opportunity to ditch the physical facility altogether. But the current reality of SDN, network functions virtualization (NFV) and virtualization
is stuck in the appliance swap-out phase, or Virtualization 1.0. The time for standardization is now. SDN is, itself, a subset of OpenFlow, the open-source standard upon which the concept was
founded…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
“Companies that don’t respond to this changing world will be left behind.” David Pleasance, Principal, Deloitte ConsultingAs the world turns to greet the dawn of a new year, the reality we
welcome is increasingly virtual. We have entered the era of Everything-as-a-Service, an epoch increasingly defined by cloud computing. Many technical domains, from storage, to applications, to
computing power, to platforms and even infrastructure are available as cloud services. This has been an exciting development for communications service providers (CSPs), as it offers promising
paths to new revenue creation and cost reduction…
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By: Morgan Gebhardt
The evolving CSP landscape The role of communications service providers (CSPs) and the world in which they operate have changed a lot in the last decade. Ten years ago, CSPs were primarily
operating large, proprietary networks to deliver fixed-line phone service to homes and businesses. Since then, CSPs have transformed into true service providers, delivering not only IP-based
landline connections, but also Internet access, mobile network connectivity, private data lines, VPN (virtual private network) services, entertainment media such as cable TV and many others…
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By: Becky Bracken
Bottom line: It's all about driving down the cost of transmitting a gigabit of data. Despite the cloud's borderless, unbreakable, limitless potential; the reality facing telcos is how to
maintain a viable business under the crushing weight of exploding data demands. Video, smartphones and connected everything, from baby monitors to service vehicles, is creating demand that was once
unimaginable; but telcos have to scale accordingly. The telco cloud promises to drive down the cost of transmission, all while ensuring a higher quality of service, on demand, in real time…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
Will SoftBank buy T-Mobile? Now that T-Mobile has acquired MetroPCS and made an aggressive run in the market with its Un-Carrier strategy, what’s next for John Legere and company? Perhaps a
sale to the Japanese. According to a report published in Reuters on Christmas day, SoftBank is in final talks to acquire T-Mobile for somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion. The
transaction would see SoftBank buyout the 67 percent of T-Mobile owned by Deutsche Telekom (DT). Last July, SoftBank purchased the majority stake in Sprint and Clearwire…
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By: Tim Young
“Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm, but to give color to my sunset sky.” -Rabindranath Tagore, "Stray Birds" (1916) One of the
interesting things in watching the growth and maturation of the cloud is how scared of it so many were at first. Was there a viable market for cloud solutions? Would it be secure enough? Would
reliability be an issue? Where will communications service providers (CSPs) fit in to the value proposition? At this point, some of those questions may still remain in the minds of some; but
the market for cloud services— platform-, software- or infrastructure-as-a-service—, is robust and the cloud is changing shape, as clouds are wont to do…
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